Monday, February 3, 2014

Fifth Great Lesson: Story of Numbers

The Fifth Great Lesson is the Story of Numbers. This story does not open up a new album area so much as introduce the child to the history of mathematics through the development of number usage. It ties together the child's previous and current studies with human development, further establishing and solidifying the experience of cosmic education.

The materials are a set of 8 charts in "half-size" (assuming you are using full-classroom size charts), with various cultures and time periods represented. The charts are used during the story to highlight various aspects.

It is perhaps not as "fantastical" as the first couple of stories, but really ties together cosmic education for the children and should come early on in their elementary experience, and repeated at various times and levels with new information as the children do some of their own research. This story helps them to gain appreciation for the gifts of our ancestors, the developments of civilization and communication (even through numbers) through time, and responsibility to pass on these gifts.

We hope that the children will have a strong foundation for how mathematics (and the mathematical mind of the human being) connects us to one another: past, present and future.